Bernal Diaz del Castillo

Spanish Soldier & Historian

Born: c. 1492

Died: c. 1581

Prior to Cortes’ campaign in Mexico, Diaz had
visited Panama and made two trips of Discovery to the Yucatan, one with
Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba in 1517, and one with Juan de Grijalva in
1518. The following year he sailed with Hernando Cortes to Mexico, where
the battles were fierce and common. Historical records place Diaz del
Castillo in over a hundred battles.

Diaz also fought for Pedro de Alvarado in the conquest of El Salvador
and Guatemala and was made Governor a Guatemalan town. His colorful,
eyewitness account of the conquest of Mexico, the three volume ‘True
History of the Conquest of New Spain’, has been published in several
editions and translations around the world. It has been proposed that
next to Cervantes, Bernal Diaz is likely the most widely read Spanish
author in history.